Party Favors
by infinite vertigo
Summary: Tenten's planned Neji a surprise party, so Neji has no goodie bags for the guests. Meanwhile, Tenten has no gift for the birthday boy. But there's always something to be done about that. NejiTen


**.disclaimer: don't own.**

_**.title:**__ party favors._

_**.genre:**__ romance, humor._

_**.pairing:**__ nejiten; implied sasusaku, shikaino, naruhina._

_**.word count:**__ 2,060._

_**.summary:**__ tenten's planned neji a surprise party, so neji has no goodie bags for the guests. meanwhile, tenten has no gift for the birthday boy. but there's always something to be done about that._

**.party favors.**

Tenten was not a party planner by any means.

She tried organizing a party once. It was terrible. All she could come up with for entertainment was Scrabble and for food she just got cheese and crackers. Her friends tried to console her but Tenten knew it was a terrible party the minute she pulled out her weapons in desperation and tried to educate them on the history.

So for Neji's birthday this year, Tenten hired professional help: Yamanaka Ino. Ino had contacts; she knew how to entertain, she knew food (she was on the same team as Choji, for goodness sake), she had access to flowers. So all Tenten had to do was nod to what Ino was doing and she, Sakura, and Hinata would do the rest of the work. All Tenten had to do was distract Neji.

Which was easy because all she had to do was say she wanted to train.

She couldn't help but feel nervous this entire time; everyone knew about the party except Neji and she couldn't believe that he hadn't caught on. But that wasn't why she was nervous; tonight she was going to tell him how she felt about him, whether or not he reciprocated those feelings, they had to be said because she wasn't going to hide anymore. And because of all this stress, the fact that she had to get him a present completely slipped her mind.

So only part of her stress was gone when she dragged him to her apartment and the surprise portion of the party had been a success; Neji really did look like he was caught off guard. And to alleviate a bit more of her stress, Neji was enjoying the party, to her great relief; she was worried that with all of the Konoha twelve gathered under one roof, Neji might get extremely annoyed. But he was smiling and laughing and looked like he was having a genuinely good time and so she couldn't help but smile and laugh as well, pushing all the anxiety out of her stomach for the time being.

"You ready?"

Tenten jumped at the voice and turned around to see Ino smiling slyly, raising her eyebrows and the brunette instantly felt her face heat up. Her crush on Neji wasn't a secret; Sakura, Ino, and Hinata all knew about it by mere observation, but the Hyuuga himself had absolutely no idea about it, which Ino regarded as Neji's fault for if he had high points in everything else he had to be missing a few from something.

"I'll do it," the weapons mistress muttered, trying to appear nonchalant but Ino easily saw through her act, "Later. When everyone's gone."

"You want some help?"

Tenten turned to the grinning blonde and narrowed her eyes. "Help to jump Neji and kiss him senseless like you did with Shikamaru? I'm not sure he'd appreciate that."

"He's a guy, Tenten, and you're a cute girl! He'd love it."

"I'd rather not."

The blonde gave Tenten another wink before she turned around and headed over to where Choji was hogging a bowl of chips and was probably going to try to take the food away from him without implying anything. Tenten sighed and let her eyes travel over to the table where mostly everyone was gathered (apparently Choji decided he didn't like poker and so was sitting by his lonesome with the chips). She smiled slightly when she heard cheers and laughter, indicating another round had finished, and decided to go over and join them, continue trying to distract herself from what would eventually come.

"How's the game?"

"I'm tied with Uchiha," Tenten heard Neji answer and knew it was just her luck to be behind him, "Shikamaru's close and Naruto's heavily in debt."

"You guys are cheating!" the blonde slammed his hand down with annoyance and Sakura laughed as Sasuke smirked, "There's no way I'm so in debt and you're all getting rich, ttebayo!"

"Dobe, you want me to lend you some more money?"

"No way, teme!"

"Oh, going to borrow some from Hinata?"

"_Shut up, teme!_"

A light laugh went around the table as the two males of team seven began to argue and Sakura just watched with amusement, already being familiar with this, knowing her boyfriend would win because Naruto's short temper was his ultimate downfall. Ino had given up and let Choji continue to eat the chips and had her arms around Shikamaru's neck, pressed against her back as she frowned and stared at his cards. Tenten didn't have to ask but just by watching Shikamaru's face, she knew he was trying to explain to her how poker worked and it wasn't working very effectively.

"Enjoying yourself?" Tenten asked and pulled up a chair, sitting next to Neji. When he looked over at her, her heart skipped a beat when she saw his slight smile.

"I am. Thank you," he added in a lower voice, "for arranging this. I know it was you, Tenten. Lee doesn't have the brain capacity and Gai is on a mission with Kakashi."

"Well," Tenten grinned, feeling a blush arise on her cheeks, "you are my best friend and you only turn eighteen once. And you aren't the best at celebrating…"

"What's wrong with my method of celebrating?"

"Training sessions, really?" she asked and he smirked, "Yeah, Neji, you're a real partier. But I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Have you opened your presents?"

"I'm not sure if I'd like to."

"Of course you do," she smiled and stood up, "Come on, Neji. What could be so bad about your presents?"

Tenten had thought of the best of their friends when she told them to bring a small gift for the Hyuuga; she forgot that they were regular teenagers, some of the idiotic and moronic. In battle, she often forgot that because the Konoha 12 worked quite well together, as they knew each other's weaknesses and strengths, and trusted each other to a certain extent.

But this was not a battlefield.

So Neji's pile of gifts included a first aid kit (apparently Sakura really had no idea what he liked), a bunch of ramen coupons (and Naruto was broke), a Uchiha fan (Sasuke liked to taunt him), a bouquet of flowers (which Ino suggested he give to someone to which Tenten nearly tackled her), a book on shogi strategies (Shikamaru later admitted he didn't want to go look for something and grabbed it off his shelf), a bag of chips (conveniently the exact kind Choji had devoured earlier), dog shaped treats (Neji wasn't sure if Kiba wanted him to eat them or wanted him to feed them to Akamaru), an ant farm (Shino told Neji to take extra good care of them), a set of two engraved kunai (Hinata's gift was actually the best one in the pile), and a green spandex suit (guess who?). Tenten stood by him, stifling laughter as she watched his expression.

"I'll give you yours later," she had whispered to him as everyone began looking at the spandex suit and Lee started advertising them, telling everyone he got them at a special factory for a discounted price. Sasuke scoffed at that, muttering that he was probably the only customer. Lee, who overheard, added that Gai also bought his from there and the Uchiha fell silent in disbelief.

Tenten couldn't help but feel her nerves set on fire as everyone started leaving and she closed the door, hearing her heart pound in her ears, knowing it was just her and Neji in her apartment. She heard movement and rolled her eyes, knowing it was Neji cleaning up in the kitchen. _Always a gentleman_, she thought dryly, _even on his own birthday_.

"Neji, you don't have to clean up," she said as she poked her head into the kitchen, "Most of it was paper plates anyway, I'll just throw them out tomorrow. You want to come outside?"

"I'm fine—"

"Not a question," she interrupted and opened the glass door to the balcony, beckoning him with a finger. He hesitated, still throwing away plates with bits and pieces of cake on them, but relented, smirking as he placed the plates and bag down and walked over. She followed him outside and closed the door behind him, and walked over to the edge with him, leaning against the railing and looking at the dark sky; hours had passed during the party that felt short and she couldn't believe it was nearly midnight.

"…Happy birthday," she said quietly, feeling her face begin to burn up already.

"Thank you."

She drummed her fingers along the railing and chewed on her bottom lip, feeling the nervous tension knotting her stomach. She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing, wishing that she could go back in time to when the party just started and this moment seemed hours and hours away, or, better yet, when she first met Neji and she wasn't in love with him, anything, really, would be better than this moment, maybe she should go…

"I'm in love with you."

That wasn't quite what she was planning to do.

As soon as the words left her mouth, her eyes widened and she felt Neji turned to her. She was unsure of his expression and was too scared to look and to try to identify it, instead focusing all that energy into gripping the railing as tightly as possible, heart pounding furiously, wondering if there was any way for her to undo what she had just done. But she knew it wasn't possible because Neji heard everything, absolutely everything.

Neji stayed silent and Tenten was appreciative of that because if he said anything, she thought she might just crumble and run away.

"I…" she stopped and swallowed, blinking rapidly, "…For a long time now. It's… when we were genin, you and I started training together. And you used to do your weird arrogant stare at me but that just motivated me to try harder because I wanted you, the Hyuuga prodigy, to acknowledge me. Then after that fight with Naruto, you were so much kinder. You didn't sneer at me anymore but I was still motivated because you encouraged me. You became kind and caring and I fell in love with you, just like that. Both sides of you helped me and then I fell in love with you. That's…" she hesitated, casting her eyes downwards, looking at the park beneath her apartment, "…that's my birthday present to you. My confession."

"…I see," Neji said quietly and Tenten had no idea what that meant. But her breathing had slowed down and she felt more back to normal, but she still felt that aching in the pit of her stomach, not knowing what his response was. She had gotten the confession over with but hadn't thought about his answer, what he would say. And now that she was waiting, she couldn't stand it, couldn't stand the uncertainty.

As she removed her hands from the railing, she noticed that they were shaking. She laughed lightly and turned around, beginning to walk back in, not wanting to stand here and wait in agonizing silence, wanted to hide from him for a while because silence was not good. But then she felt Neji's hand around her wrist and a sharp tug backwards, she spun around, eyes wide, to see him before she crashed into his chest. And then he cupped her chin softly and tilted her head before he kissed her, tender and soft, and she fell into him.

And if her stomach was turning before, it was flipping now; adrenaline was rushing through her and she felt so at peace even though she felt like she was on fire as he felt his other hand on her waist, keeping her close, supporting her so she wouldn't fall to a pile right at his feet at this moment. Sometimes, she realized, words weren't needed; sometimes actions could speak more than words could convey.

"Tenten," she heard him say softly when he pulled back and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, heart rate speeding up, hands still shaking but for a very, very different reason now.

"Neji?"

She opened her eyes and saw him smile, silvery eyes softening.

"That was your goodie bag."

**.author's notes: happy birthday to neji! i think this is the first time i've ever remembered, hahaha. thank you for reading and reviews are much appreciated!.**


End file.
